An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus acquires echo signals by ultrasonic scanning and generates display image data based on the acquired echo signals. The ratio of the brightness of each pixel of a display image to the intensity of an echo signal is called a gain. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus has a function (STC: Sensitivity Time Control) of adjusting a gain in accordance with the distance in the depth direction so as to display anatomically identical regions on images with the same brightness. As an application of STC, there has been developed a function of automatically adjusting a gain in accordance with the distance in the depth direction by analyzing the intensity of an echo signal. The function of automatically adjusting a gain in accordance with the distance in the depth direction will be referred to as an automatic STC function hereinafter.
In some case, scanning conditions such as a frequency and a focus position are adjusted via a UI (User Interface) during ultrasonic scanning. As a scanning condition is adjusted, the intensity of the echo signal changes. When, therefore, a scanning condition is adjusted, a gain must be set again. For this reason, there has also been developed a function of updating the gain set by the automatic STC function in cooperation with a UI for scanning condition adjustment. The function of updating the gain set by the automatic STC function in cooperation with the UI for scanning condition adjustment will be referred to as a UI gated-gain update function hereinafter. If the gain adjustment accuracy of the automatic STC function is low, STC is manually adjusted in accordance with an instruction from the user via the UI. In general, gain adjustment is repeated by the above automatic STC function, UI gated-gain update function, and manual STC adjustment until a display image with optimal image quality is obtained.
The conventional ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, however, has the following problem.
In image diagnosis using an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, after STC is manually adjusted in accordance with an instruction from the user via the UI, a scanning condition is sometimes changed. In this case, the conventional ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus forcibly resets the manual adjustment result, and automatically executes STC adjustment based on the UI gated-gain update function. If, therefore, the user wants to change only a scanning condition while reflecting the manual adjustment result, he/she needs to manually adjust STC again via the UI after automatic adjustment by the UI gated-gain update function. Therefore, gain adjusting operation sometimes takes much time, resulting in a deterioration in operation efficiency.